Back to Home page NEWSLETTER Cedar Rapids Downtown Kiwanis Club Wednesday, June 11, 2008 The meeting was called to order by President Kelly Moore. 15 Members in attendance. Guests: None Birthdays: Sister Charmaine absent to flooding Anniversaries: Sister Charmaine absent to flooding Announcements: 1. New officer training is this Saturday at Aegon.
2. Dave Graeff and Doug Dix had a good time at the state golf event.
3. Dan Breitbach passed around a signup sheet for Kernels wrist banding fund-raiser. Happy Bucks: There were several, but the scribe arrived a little lated. Upcoming programs: June 18: Municipal solid waste
June 25: New smoking ban
July 2: New police chief
July 9: Expert on gypsy holocaust Speaker: Dr. Graeff introduced Cathy Wilson. Cathy got her BA in history at Bemidji State, her MA at the University of York in England; and is currently working on her PhD at the U. of Iowa. Cathy gave a very interesting presentation on re-enactments, particularly the Civil War. Re-enactments go all the back to Roman times. They lost interest during WWII when Hitler used them in a sinister style. We saw a revival during the 1960’s as part of the centennial of the Civil War. However, the Vietnam War drew all of our attention away and it wasn’t until the 1980’s and the Civil War’s 125th anniversary that re-enactment units started cropping up all over the country. The largest re-enactment to date occurred on the 135th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg with 25,000+ participants and over 45,000 spectators.
There is a strong following in Iowa. The first event each year occurs in Keokuk in April. Mason City holds an event in August. Re-enactments take many forms, including battles, encampments, classroom presentations and the use of historic sites, to name a few.
Britain has a large and very active re-enactment organization and Europe, as a whole, does an excellent job of replication. Cathy pointed to two reasons for this: many have family ties to America through immigration; and they are fascinated with the technology back then, in particular, for the development of weapons and ironclads.
All in all, it was a very good presentation and Cathy was dressed in re-enactment attire, complete with corset. Word for the day: Kevin Carlson took over in Don’s absence with: “ectopic”. Dr. Graeff guessed correctly: “out of place”. Submitted: Dan Breitbach | 